The thought police strike back -- SMU affirmative action bake
sale shut down
By Brendan Steinhauser
web posted September 29, 2003
This past Thursday, September 25th, was a dark day for
freedom of speech on college campuses. An affirmative action
bake sale organized by The Young Conservatives of Texas was
shut down by the administration at Southern Methodist
University in Dallas. The idea of the bake sale was to show that
discrimination is wrong. The group did this by selling cookies at
prices that corresponded to the consumer's race. While white
males were asked to pay one dollar, hispanic and black students
paid less .
The administration responded to this act of protest by closing the
bake sale down because it offended some students. At least one
black student filed a grievance with the university. Tim Moore,
director of the Hughes-Trigg Student Center at SMU remarked,
"This was not an issue of free speech. It was really an issue
where we had a hostile environment being created that was
potentially volatile." According to this reasoning, free speech only
applies to situations without heated discussions. By these
standards, Martin Luther King, Jr. would not have been allowed
to give his "I Have a Dream Speech." Everyone knows how
volatile the civil rights movement was in America, but does that
mean it should have been prevented?
Once again the hypocrisy of the academic left has been exposed.
To them, free speech only applies to "politically correct" ideas,
like support of affirmative action. Any speech that does not fit
into the paradigm of liberal thought must be prohibited in the
name of "tolerance." This paradoxical idea is a common feature
of leftist beliefs.
As soon as the story broke about the SMU bake sale, news
media from all over the country flocked to Dallas. David
Rushing, the organizer of the event, and also the state chairman
of The Young Conservatives, was flown to New York City to
discuss the issue on ABC World News and Good Morning
America. This shows the magnitude of the implications for the
expression of conservative thought on American universities. If
SMU is allowed to shut down such events, what prevents it from
stopping similar protests in the future? What precedent does this
set for college campuses in the rest of the country?
Conservatives contend that most college campuses were allowed
to have massive anti-war protests that blocked traffic and cost
the cities in which they were held thousands of dollars in
taxpayers' money. Here, at The University of Texas in Austin,
there were numerous demonstrations that had a much more
disruptive effect and created a more hostile environment than the
bake sale. Of course, local governments and campus
administrations did nothing to halt these protests. There is indeed
a double standard when it comes to expression of ideas on
American college campuses today. This is unacceptable, and
should not be allowed to continue.
The Young Conservatives of Texas are now calling for
nationwide affirmative action bake sales to protest this
discriminatory policy, and to challenge the administrations of
universities to uphold the principles they claim to espouse. YCT
will continue to work for academic freedom of thought, and for
the right of all students, regardless of political beliefs, to express
their opinions on their campuses. YCT also encourages the
SMU alumni to withhold donations until the administration
apologizes for their blatant censorship. This fight for free speech
is a battle that must be won, to ensure that the leftist thought
police are not allowed to impose their beliefs on students. Our
forefathers added the bill of rights to our constitution to prevent
such atrocities from occurring. It would be a shame for
Americans to accept anything less than these fundamental and
inalienable rights.
Brendan Steinhauser is the Executive Director of The Young
Conservatives of Texas at The University of Texas at Austin.
This article originally appeared in Front Page Magazine.
Enter Stage Right -- http://www.enterstageright.com